Get smart about using social media

The idea that social media is being hyped in professional services has created a firestorm in accounting circles.

By far the strongest argument for a social media presence is that young people are social media-savvy, and that firms aiming to attract the best young blood need to present themselves as being at the cutting edge, or at the very least as having a clue.

“Surely a sign of being modern is that leading firms must have an active social media presence," says marketing consultant Rob Nixon.

Using social media and being smart about it are not the same thing. Some so-called savvy youths would just as soon put their mobile number on Facebook for every psycho to exploit, or even post chief executive Gail Kelly’s mobile and personal email on Westpac’s Facebook page (don’t laugh, it almost happened).

Firms such as Ernst & Young have proved social media campaigns can work for graduate recruitment. But most businesses understate the risk. Social media is word of mouth on steroids – and it spreads bad news, too.

A case in point: Occupy Wall Street posts racist comments on the Facebook page of a big bank. The bank takes them down because, well, they’re racist. Occupy accuses the bank of censorship. This is right up the list of no-no’s in social media land.

A frenzy breaks out, a front-page story follows, everyone from the bank’s board down to the PR hack is cranky, and hundreds of hours are wasted putting out fires that could otherwise have been invested in productive pursuits.

Are big accounting firms prepared to invest up to $1 million a year on social media strategies, employing social media boffins 24/7 to manage any crises that pop up? If the answer is yes, they’re ready for social media.

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Even if the answer is no, firms have to take social media seriously, and here’s why: Rabbitohs footballer Sam Burgess tweets to his 45,600 Twitter followers that the waterworks in his house are buggered and he can’t find a plumber. Eleven people tweet back contacts. Days later, Burgess tweets a personal recommendation for the plumber he used to 45,600 people, one of whom is the daughter of a Sydney accountant. He’s a Rabbitohs fan and notices the plumber is local and jots down the number.

“I can’t fathom what my daughter does on Facebook for so many hours, but that plumber just got recommended to 45,000 people and it cost him absolutely nothing," he marvels.

Small, entrepreneurial accountants are building big portions of their practice using social media as a marketing platform. Melbourne accountant Paul Meissner claims to get 80 per cent of his clients from Twitter. After his second year in sole practice, he claims fees of $600,000 for 2011-12.